Fergie's Tech Blog

Report: FCC Nominees On The Way

Paul Kapustka writes in Advanced IP Pipeline:

Telecom analysts at research firm Legg Mason said in a report today that the Bush administration is close to naming two nominees to the Federal Communications Commission, a move toward restoring the Republican voting majority on the FCC.

The Legg Mason report named current Bush aides Michael Meece and Richard Russell as potential FCC nominees, along with Tennessee state regulator Deborah Taylor Tate and Suzanne Haik Terrell, who ran for a Senate seat in Louisiana in 2002. While the report said "other names are still mentioned as possibilities," it expects two of the four aforementioned to be presented as nominees, perhaps as early as this week.

The nominations are necessary to re-establish the GOP majority on the five-member FCC commissioner panel, which has had one seat vacant since the resignation of former FCC chairman Michael Powell in March. Current FCC chair Kevin Martin, who was named by President Bush to succeed Powell, has been hamstrung in his policymaking by not having a voting majority in the FCC. The other Republican commissioner, Kathleen Abernathy, is expected to step down as soon as a replacement is named, hence the need for two new GOP nominees.

posted by Fergie @ 7/27/2005 11:33:00 AM